ASTM A516 Boiler Plate

Huge shell being made with Dillinger ASTM A516 Pressure Vessel Steel

We have an extensive stock of ASME/ASTM A516Boiler Plate. Our focus is in supplying very high quality plates for demanding applications in the oil and gas industry. As a result we have a large proportion of very heavy plates over 50mm, and going up to 300mm, and are able to meet significant requirements on an ex-stock basis.

Most of our high grade ASTMA516 plates have been independently tested and have an EN10204 3.2 certificate from Lloyds Register (or other globally recognised testing body). All plates have at least a 3.1 certificate.

ASME/ASTM A516 Boiler Plates Available Ex-Stock

ASTM/ASME A516 Background

ASTM A516 is a specification for carbon steel plates for moderate and low temperature service. The plates are generally used for the construction of welded pressure vessels when an improvement in notch toughness is required.

ASTM A516 (or ASME SA516) is available in four grades, Gr55, Gr60, Gr65 and Gr70 with tensile strengths ranging from 380 MPa to 620 MPa depending on the grade. Oakley Steel supplies A516 Grade 60 and A516 Grade 70. We supply ASTM A516 65 as HIC resistant plate – it is triple certified as A516 60/65/70 and meets the requirements of all three grades for that purpose.

Whilst it is possible for very thick plates (200 mm) to be produced that meet the requirements of the standard the thickest generally available plates from stock are 150mm. Dillinger Hutte are world renowned for heavy plates and have produced some of the thickest A516 plates ever rolled

ASTM A516 steel plate is killed and has a fine austenitic grain size. Plates under 40 mm thick can be supplied as rolled or normalised, whereas plates over 40 mm thick are normalised.

Reasons to Buy ASME/ASTM A516 Boiler Plate from Oakley Steel

The companies that buy from us are normally fabricators with an ASME U stamp or equivalent certification from the National Board, Lloyds, DNV etc. For many boilers lower quality steel is sufficient – for example in the Palm oil industry and in food refining. However for boilers (pressure vessels, heat exchangers, columns and towers) in the oil and gas industry our boiler plates meet the very high specifications required.

And this is where our plates stand out against Japanese and Korean steels. The steel, and the MTC’s that support the plates, are of very high quality and this makes acceptance – both at tender and during production and commissioning – by the EPC or oil major far easier. A couple of examples:

In one case a Malaysian company near Port Klang had bought some A516 70 from us. They reported that when the Shell inspector came to site to do PMI (Positive Material Identification) on the vessel he was shocked by the numbers and did a retest to check that the machine was not in error. Low critical values of Phosphorus and other residual elements mean great performance.

A customer in Singapore was being asked to supply a vessel for sour service with a CLR of 0%. This is an extreme requirement because it means that the test sample cut from the HIC resistant plate effectively have to have no cracks in them after being bathed in acid solution for 4 days. Normally HIC plates are sold with 5%, 10% or 15% CLR. Very dubious about being able to meet this requirement from stock we started having a look at our MTCs and actually found the requisite 30 tonnes of plates in stock. Wow! Whilst this is a very occasional requirement it does demonstrate that our boiler plate from stock often meets the toughest requirements. Not need to wait for new rolling.

A516 Steel Supplementary Requirements

The following supplementary requirements from ASTM A20can be met by A 516:

S1 – Vacuum treatment

S2 – Product Analysis

S3 – Simulated Post Weld Heat Treatment

S4.1 – Additional Tensile Test

S5 – Impact Test (Charpy Notch)

S6 – Dropweight Test

S7 – Hot Tensile Test

S8 – UT (Ultrasonic Testing) to A435

S9 – Magnetic Particle Examination

S11 – UT to A577

S12 – UT yo A578

S17 – Vacum Carbon Deoxidised Steel

Some of the requirements are met through the mill production process whereas others such as PWHT, Impact testing and UT examination are available as additional tests.

A516 Pressure Vessel Steel Chemical Composition

This table provides the main features of the chemical composition of different grades A516 boiler plate steel as required by ASTM?ASME A516/A516M. It is not complete as we have not included many of the minor use cases. These may have a major impact in your application so please use this for reference purposes only and refer to your original and up to date copy of the relevant standard

We have listed the chemical and physical properties of the grades on the table below to allow for clear comparison. ASME SA 516 gr 70 has the highest tensile and yield strength of the three grades and this is due to the higher carbon content of the steel. The other principal alloying elements are the same as the other two ASME SA 516 grades.

Generally the higher the grade, in this case ASME SA 516 gr 70, the higher quality steel it is consideredto be and the wider the range of possible applications. Our experience is that customers tend to choose either ASME SA 516 gr 60 or ASME SA 516 gr 70, with ASME SA 516 gr 65 being less popular. This is because the small difference between the grades mean that many heats of A16 70 can be dual or triple certified for all three grades and the small price differential means that for procurement purposes the additional cost of procuring ASME SA 516 gr 70 is small, whilst the engineering and logistical benefits can be significant.

Our steel plates are of high quality and if you check summary the sample Mill Test Certificate on the test certs page you can see that the standard requirements are comfortably exceeded.

ASME and ASTM Standards are harmonised so ASME SA 516 gr 70 is exactly the same as ASTM A 516 gr 70. On some specifications this is written as ASTM/ASME A/SA 516 gr70 or a similar combination of the same meaning.

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Why Choose Oakley Steel?

AncoferWaldram is one of Europe;s leading steel stockholders. With 40,000 metric tonnes of heavy carbon steel plates in stock Ancofer is able to supply large quantities of heavy plate to projects that need fast delivery.